


Captain's Welcome

by Carmarthen



Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types, Les Misérables - Victor Hugo
Genre: Alternate Universe - Brainships, Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, F/F, Gen, Siblings, Tumblr Ask Box Fic, Vignette, lesbian subtext is a bit buried
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-16
Updated: 2013-05-16
Packaged: 2017-12-12 00:19:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 361
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/804930
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Carmarthen/pseuds/Carmarthen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Captain Baptistine and Engineer Magloire of the starship Myriel pick up an escape pod with a terrified refugee.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Captain's Welcome

**Author's Note:**

  * For [smokefall](https://archiveofourown.org/users/smokefall/gifts).



> Smokefall asked for Baptistine and Magloire in space. I added Myriel the brainship and Jean Valjean, because why not. I tried to do some other things with this one, which I'd be curious to see if anyone notices.
> 
> Thanks to sath for helpful structural comments and Stripy for the title.
> 
> [Brainships](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brainship), if anyone needs a little context.

“…the comms are malfunctioning again, Captain,” came Master Chief Magloire’s tart, slightly breathless voice from behind Baptistine. “The system claims to be receiving a distress signal, but there can’t be anything alive this far out, surely. I’ve been trying to troubleshoot it all shift, but the cursed diagnostics keep coming up clean. I told that useless engineer’s boy to buy a new receiver last time we were in port, but you know how he is; he’d forget his own head if it weren’t attached, he would.”

Baptistine was about to shrug and tell Magloire to ignore it for now—they had refugees to pick up from Minerva, after all—when the _Myriel_ said _My door is always open._

Her brother the starship’s voice echoed curiously in Baptistine’s head through the aural implant, a cool, ghostly echo of the warm, gentle voice she remembered from her youth, the voice that recordings could never quite capture and which had now almost faded from her imperfect human memory.

But Charles was still her brother in his soul, even if his body was now the _Myriel_ and his mind as much computer as flesh, and he was still the most generous person she knew. “Check it out,” she told Magloire, who closed her mouth in that muleish way that said she wanted nothing more than to argue; well, she would sweeten up later, as she always did. “We have enough time to scan, at least. Maybe it’s a floater.”

Charles was right, and the signal was real enough: an escape pod from one of the big mining vessels, stamped with the insignia of the Toulon penal colony.

When they cracked the pod, they found a man who looked like a rough villain—but for his eyes, which were those of a wary animal, or a child. He cowered, blinking with stasis sickness, his hands trembling against the bulkhead.

 _The very man who is embarrassed by his name is the one who needs shelter,_ Charles said in Baptistine’s ear.

“Welcome, brother,” said Baptistine, holding out her hand to the stranger in the escape pod. “Magloire, my dear, will you dial up some food for our guest?”


End file.
